David Brooks over at the New York Times has plenty to say about the last 30 years of Republican discourse:
By traditional definitions, conservatism stands for intellectual humility, a belief in steady, incremental change, a preference for reform rather than revolution, a respect for hierarchy, precedence, balance and order, and a tone of voice that is prudent, measured and responsible. Conservatives of this disposition can be dull, but they know how to nurture and run institutions. They also see the nation as one organic whole. Citizens may fall into different classes and political factions, but they are still joined by chains of affection that command ultimate loyalty and love.
All of this has been overturned in dangerous parts of the Republican Party. Over the past 30 years, or at least since Rush Limbaugh came on the scene, the Republican rhetorical tone has grown ever more bombastic, hyperbolic and imbalanced. Public figures are prisoners of their own prose styles, and Republicans from Newt Gingrich through Ben Carson have become addicted to a crisis mentality. Civilization was always on the brink of collapse. Every setback, like the passage of Obamacare, became the ruination of the republic. Comparisons to Nazi Germany became a staple.
The op-ed is worth reading in its entirety, even if there are certain things with which I adamantly disagree.
On one side are my conservative inclinations towards reform rather than revolution. My faith informs my character and conscience, my conscience rebels at the very thought of violence, and at the end of the day my faith — as defined by the Catholic tradition — chooses Jesus Christ over the revolutionary Barabbas. Such is the example of Christianity, or at the very least, a Christianity not marred by the political religions of the day.
The other side? The last 30 years haven’t exactly been kind to conservatives, much less the populist arm of the American public who has always been wedded to materialism as a saving grace and desperately wants to “make America great again!” in the pursuit of an America that never was. Politics follows culture, as Pope Saint John Paul II reminds us and conservative stalwart Paul Weyrich used to admonish crowds — and conservatives lost the culture decades ago.
Where have we lost it? Marriage, abortion, the loss of civil liberties, inflation, monetary policy, the rise of the service economy in lieu of a productive economy, a 19th century liberal arts education with 20th century tools expected to produce 21st century results, crippling debt for college tuitions, usurious personal credit card debt, rising taxes, entitlements upon entitlements, pensions both public and private that future generations cannot afford, military pensions, social security’s insolvency, and an economy designed to force people to spend while punishing savers — or even worse, bailouts for the wealthy while your average pensioner gets to watch his or her 401k dissolve overnight.
…and that’s just on the government intervention side.
O tempora! O mores! shouts the classicist. Social conservatism, knowing that the culture war had been lost in the 1960s, sought all sorts of ways to stem the tide. We enshrined our culture into law, only to watch the law change and then correspondingly change the culture. That experiment has failed to a point where the Benedict Option — the mass removal of Christians from civil society — is actively being contemplated by conservative Christian intellectuals. Actively… what a defeat that would be.
Regarding the populists, it’s worth noting that their strand of nativist sentiment and revolutionary zeal is nothing new.
Twenty years ago, it was Pat Buchanan, Ross Perot, and the Reform Party.
…20 years before that? George Wallace and the Independent Party.
…20 years before that? The John Birch Society.
…20 years before that? Charles Lindbergh and the America First movement.
…20 years before that? Teddy Roosevelt, the “Bull Elephants” and the Bull Moose Party.
…20 years before that? William Jennings Bryan and the “Cross of Gold” speech.
…20 years before that? The Farmers Party and the Populist Party in the American west and south.
…20 years before that? The Civil War and the death of agrarianism.
…20 years before that? The Know Nothings.
…20 years before that? Andrew Jackson and the rise of Jacksonian Democracy.
…20 years before that? The Revolution of 1800.
Of course, Jefferson hated Jackson and everything he stood for. Progressivism and populism share similar motives, but veer in different directions (and as recently as Teddy Roosevelt and the America First movement). Agrarianism and populism are perhaps distant cousins, but could not be more polarizing opposites in their approach to materialism and material goods. The strain of nativism ebbs and flows, but remains in places… and in the 20th century, the element of anti-communism remains as strong as ever.
What pervades this is an anti-political ethos; the Spirit of ’76 without an understanding of history. So rather than reform what we ought to understand, we rebel against what we do not. Brooks explains:
A weird contradictory mentality replaced traditional conservatism. Republican radicals have contempt for politics, but they still believe that transformational political change can rescue the nation. Republicans developed a contempt for Washington and government, but they elected leaders who made the most lavish promises imaginable. Government would be reduced by a quarter! Shutdowns would happen! The nation would be saved by transformational change! As Steven Bilakovics writes in his book “Democracy Without Politics,” “even as we expect ever less of democracy we apparently expect ever more from democracy.”
This anti-political political ethos produced elected leaders of jaw-dropping incompetence. Running a government is a craft, like carpentry. But the new Republican officials did not believe in government and so did not respect its traditions, its disciplines and its craftsmanship. They do not accept the hierarchical structures of authority inherent in political activity.
What should chill most conservatives with regards to our populist friends is a total rejection of democracy and compromise; the abrogation of representative government in favor of hostage taking. Rather than view politics as a generational fight, the populists demand the change now, demand the revolution now, and will brand all those who resist such change as traitors to the cause.
…not entirely unlike their progressive cousins from not-too-long-ago, are they?
Once upon a time, conservatives respected their intellectual foundations. You see the stirrings here and there, as conservatives point back towards the Sharon Statement and the Manhattan Declaration point the way forward.
Populists would counter that such statements are meaningless in the face of an $18 trillion debt, that radical action must be taken immediately, that social issues are in fact divisive and alienate from the goal of economic prosperity — defined solely as lowering taxes rather than investing in the infrastructure the free market requires to survive. Government regulation and the social welfare state are the problem in the eyes of the populists, and if a little weak corporatism is required to get us away from strong socialism, so be it. The fewer competitors for what remains of the social welfare state in terms of pensions owed, social security paid, and other goodies from government that benefit the populists themselves? All the better… and hence the imperative of driving out immigrants of all stripes and colors, whether they are legal, illegal, or refugees from overseas. All are enemies… because populists at the end of the day make the same materialist error that their progressive cousins make: wealth cannot be created, economies are built on theft or gain and not on people, and the fewer people to enjoy the spoils the better.
Conservatives, on the other hand, have a duty to resist such siren songs. Economies are built on people, not on systems, and the free market truly free unleashes the potential of the human race to achieve the prosperity our fathers and grandfathers wanted for the next generation. Political freedom and economic freedom are one, and repression in any form hinders both. That such a free market and free people require an infrastructure to support its operation, and that investment debt is not a thing to be avoided, but embraced in order to harness American energy, American commerce, and American jobs. That free trade requires free goods, and that protectionism destroys the very foundation of an economic principles our Founding Fathers viewed as a moral imperative for a free society. That national sovereignty requires the confidence of a nation to incorporate the best and brightest. That economic growth rather than economic scarcity should dictate American policy decisions. That international terrorism is the last gasp of failing ideologies, and that their oxygen should be cut off and their ability to terrorize be extirpated from the globe. That the Pax Americana is worth defending, because America is indeed the best and last hope for freedom on earth.
Most of all, conservatives need to believe again. Ours are the values that made America great, and ours are the values that will keep America strong.
The liberals and progressives had their chance and failed. The populists had their chance… and are failing. It’s not about material goods and “happiness” — Jefferson understood this. It’s about the pursuit of happiness that conservatives seek to preserve.
This above all else is the chief error of both the progressive left and the populist right… they look to “the god that failed” and expect political salvation where none is to be had. Government was never meant to be the ends, but rather the means of a free society. The moment the progressives and populists confused this, their error betrays their infidelity to our Founding principles.
It’s time to give what’s right about America the chance we deserve: strong and with purpose, reform and not revolution, process and not personalities. Moreover, in a republic, it is force of argument that wins the day… not the argument of force. Government shutdowns, hostage taking, and the refusal to compromise all belie a weakness of purpose and a lack of true confidence. If our principles are right, roll the dice — truth wins out; the dice are loaded. Progressives and populists cannot abide this, and therefore game the system with government.
Reject this.
Foundational process is what our Founders believed, and that is what we have a moral duty and holy cause to conserve against our enemies — both foreign and domestic. Every 20 years we have this allergic reaction to the principles our Founders died to preserve… and it is our duty as conservatives to fight back and preserve it.
